Abstract
Differentiating between voices is a basic social skill humans acquire early in life. The current study aimed to understand the subcortical mechanisms of voice processing by focusing on the two most important acoustical voice features: the fundamental frequency (F0) and harmonics. We measured frequency following responses in a group of young adults to a naturally produced speech syllable under two linguistic contexts: same-syllable and multiple-syllable. Compared to the same-syllable context, the multiple-syllable context contained more speech cues to aid voice processing. We analyzed the magnitude of the response to the F0 and harmonics between same-talker and multiple-talker conditions within each linguistic context. Results establish that the human auditory brainstem is sensitive to different talkers as shown by enhanced harmonic responses under the multiple-talker compared to the same-talker condition, when the stimulus stream contained multiple syllables. This study thus provides the first electrophysiological evidence of the auditory brainstem's sensitivity to human voices.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 333-337 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | International Journal of Psychophysiology |
Volume | 95 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2015 |
Keywords
- Auditory brainstem
- Frequency following response
- Voice
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
- Physiology (medical)